UM Legend Bernie Kosar: Tony Bosch "Had an Amazing Impact on My Life"

Biogenesis proprietor Tony Bosch didn't spend all his time cooking up elaborate doping procedures for MLB stars like Alex Rodriguez and Ryan Braun. As reported in Blood Sport, the new book on the Miami scandal, Bosch also had a huge network of regular clientele, from UM students to high schoolers to ex-athletes. Among that latter group, Blood Sport recounts, was none other than UM legend Bernie Kosar.

Yesterday, Kosar talked about his ties to Bosch for the first time. The former NFL first-round draft pick says the unlicensed anti-aging doctor "had an amazing impact on my life."

"Going to the UM, he's been around us and (our) friends for like 30 years," Kosar said. "And he has been talking about this for 20 years."

But Kosar says Bosch's sins as a PED-supplier in baseball cloud the fact that he's truly helped regular clientele like the ex-quarterback. Kosar struggled for years with symptoms related to his playing career.

"I had bleeding in my head for probably 20 some plus years from all those concussions that my body couldn't naturally clot and stop," Kosar said.

About ten years ago, Kosar said Bosch convinced him to try "natural hormones" as a way to "build up your immune system."

Bosch's treatments helped, Kosar said, and helped point him toward other holistic doctors who have aided his recovery. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been able to get on my kinda personal journey to health and wellness," Kosar said.

Kosar did note that his connection with Bosch came well before New Times exposed his ties to MLB ballplayers.

"The last couple years, it has become clear what probably transpired," Kosar said of Bosch's side job selling PEDs. "Go back 10 to 15 years, and I was more focused on myself and how I could get myself going. Not being a baseball player and in this post-football era trying to stay healthy to keep up with Joe, my 14-year-old son. It wasn't something I really paid attention to."

In Blood Sport, an old Canes teammate named Julio Cortes takes credit for connecting Bosch and Kosar. Like Kosar, he says the fake doctor helped heal his post-football pains. "A month before I saw him, I was sitting on the ground and I couldn't get up," Cortes said. "He put me on this program, and a month later I'm playing racquetball and feeling good."

As Blood Sport notes, it's tough to find too much fault in Bosch helping out two battered and aging football stars. From the book:

If he gave Cortes and Kosar testosterone, Bosch broke the law. But it's hard to see immediate harm in two ailing middle-aged men snagging testosterone if it helped heal their aches. After all, they had legitimate health problems and were certainly old enough to know what they were getting into.

Kosar puts himself into that category: "I'm really proud of how much he helped me. He really helped," Kosar said.

In the book, some ex-football gurus go even further. Mike Ditka says he'd like to see HGH legalized for football players. "We gotta stay hurt forever?" Ditka says. "If it helps you recover from injuries, I have no idea why it would be a bad thing. You're paying players all this money, wouldn't it help to get them back on the field where they can earn money? If I owned a football team, I'd want my guys to play every week."

Tim Elfrink is an award-winning investigative reporter, the managing editor of the Miami New Times and the co-author of "Blood Sport: Alex Rodriguez and the Quest to End Baseball's Steroid Era." Since 2008, he's written in-depth pieces on police corruption, fatal shootings and social justice issues across South Florida. He's won the George Polk Award and has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting.